How to format your references using the BMC Family Practice citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for BMC Family Practice. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Download the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

1. Finkelstein J. Metalloproteins. Nature. 2009;460:813.

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Mulcahy NJ, Call J. Apes save tools for future use. Science. 2006;312:1038–40.

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Truog RD, Kesselheim AS, Joffe S. Research ethics. Paying patients for their tissue: the legacy of Henrietta Lacks. Science. 2012;337:37–8.

A journal article with 7 or more authors

1. Boes M, Cerny J, Massol R, Op den Brouw M, Kirchhausen T, Chen J, et al. T-cell engagement of dendritic cells rapidly rearranges MHC class II transport. Nature. 2002;418:983–8.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

1. Morvillo N. Science and Religion. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell; 2010.

An edited book

1. Macchi S, Tiepolo M, editors. Climate Change Vulnerability in Southern African Cities: Building Knowledge for Adaptation. Cham: Springer International Publishing; 2014.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Persona P, Ori C. Simulation in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. In: Gullo A, editor. Anaesthesia, Pharmacology, Intensive Care and Emergency A.P.I.C.E: Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting - International Symposium on Critical Care Medicine. Milano: Springer; 2014. p. 39–46.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for BMC Family Practice.

Blog post

1. Luntz S. Australia To Cut Welfare Payments For Anti-Vaxxers. IFLScience. 2015. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/australia-make-welfare-payments-dependent-vaccination/. Accessed 30 Oct 2018.

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

1. Government Accountability Office. Environmental Satellites: Improvements Needed in NOAA’s Mitigation Strategies as It Prepares for Potential Satellite Coverage Gaps. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2015.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

1. Powell JR. Ocean fronts in the Southern California Current System and their role in structuring zooplankton distributions, diel vertical migration, and size composition. Doctoral dissertation. University of California San Diego; 2013.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

1. Mueller B, Wang V, Piccoli S. 3 Men From Shelter Held in Sexual Assault on Woman Leaving Church. New York Times. 2017;:A17.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in square brackets:

This sentence cites one reference [1].
This sentence cites two references [1, 2].
This sentence cites four references [1–4].

About the journal

Full journal title	BMC Family Practice
Abbreviation	BMC Fam. Pract.
ISSN (online)	1471-2296
Scope	Family Practice